The Sam Vimes “Boots” theory of socioeconomic unfairness, often called simply the boots theory, is an economic theory that people in poverty have to buy cheap and subpar products that need to be replaced repeatedly, proving more expensive in the long run than more expensive items.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.netEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    The irony of it being called boot theory and using footwear as an example when just yesterday I was expressing how much I would like some footwear that was Buy It For Life material but can’t, even when I save up to spend a lot of money on a pair because even the most expensive shoes are made from the same materials and at about the same quality and will get the same punishment from literally being stepped on all day everyday.

    The idea is sound; just not with everything in our current world.

    • rekabis@lemmy.ca
      0·
      9 months ago

      even the most expensive shoes are made from the same materials and at about the same quality

      Sorry, but no. The materials may look the same, but (for example) a good pair of Wolverine boots - 1,000 mile or 1883 - are made with much higher-quality parts and manufacturing methods than your average pair of shoes. From the stitching (Goodyear Welt, FTW) to the sole material to the grade of leather used in the uppers, it’s all chosen for superior durability.

      I have even seen this within a single (previously favourite) brand that changed their sole supplier, and a pair went from 16-24 months before the soles wore out to 6-12 months before I couldn’t wear them anymore. The uppers remained perfectly fine, and I could have had the shoes re-soled, but due to the rarity of local cobblers that alone would have cost more than a brand-new shoe. So I just switched to something of commensurately higher quality that could reach the two-year usage point again.

      I have also had $100 work boots that broke down within a single season, and a single pair of $500 work boots that are still going strong a decade later.

      Quality exists. And quality costs. But you cannot identify quality on cost alone, because a lot of shit is expensive due to branding and hype, making it a Veblen good that isn’t worth what you pay for it.

        • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
          0·
          9 months ago

          Not really. If you never heard the name on TV or advertising of any kind, they don’t need to advertise

          See - Mephisto shoes

    • TheRealKuni@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      The name is because of its origin, which is from the Terry Pratchett book Men at Arms in the following passage:

      The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

      Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

      But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

    • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
      0·
      9 months ago

      High quality shoes are made with construction methods that allow them to be resoled. With proper maintenance they absolutely can be BIFL. But not all expensive footwear is high quality.

      Also resoling a pair of shoes will probably run you about a hundred bucks and a lot of people probably pay less than that for a new pair of shoes.